good morning. i'm jose diaz-balart. the first focus on the latest developments in ebola in the united states. we're just learning the national institute of health will hold a news conference at the bottom of the hour. as a matter of fact, at 10:34030-eastern time. we'll be bringing it to you live. right now nina pham, the first nurse to get ebola is being treated at the nih clinical center in maryland. she arrived just before midnight. was getting off a medical transport plane and into a awaiting ambulance at dallas. nurses and staff gave her a hero sendoff. and for the first time, we're getting an inside look at the isolation unit where pham has been getting treatment. the hospital released this video of pham talking with her medical team.

there are new concerns surrounding pham's colleague, amber, who is being treated for ebola at emery university hospital in atlanta. the cdc is scrambling this morning to identify hundreds of other air passengers who might have had some kind of exposure to vincent. flew from dallas to cleveland may have had ebola symptoms earlier than they thought. there's some high anxiety on the ic. a lab supervisor who may have handled the late thomas duncan's bodily fluids is being isolated aboard the carnival cruise ship. she has shown no signs of ebola. dallas county judge is asking any hospital worker who had contact with duncan to voluntarily agree not to fly or use public transportation or to go to public areas where people

congregati congregate. calling for a ban on travel from west africa ebola hot zones, president obama, for the first time, said he's open to the idea as well as a possible ebola czar. once again, we're staying on top of all of these fast moving parts from maryland to atlanta to making sure caution doesn't turn into hysteria. let's get the latest from luke ru ru ru russert in maryland. nina pham is there. how is she doing? tell us about her treatment. >> reporter: nina pham arrived around 10:35 last night. you saw the hero sendoff she received. another funny thing we saw on video wasn't included in the runup. she said to her friend who were treating her. everyone should come to maryland. she seemed to be in good spirits or as good spirits as you can be.

she's here at nih. one of four hospitals that has a special bio containment unit that is specially set up to treat people with infectious diseases like ebola. she will get the best type of treatment she possibly could get. that is why she is here at nih. she'll have clinical specialists specifically for ebola. and on top of that, we expect her to be here for the reminder while she's infected. we heard from hospital officials in terms the length of stay. she'll be here until she gets better. at 10:30 a.m. we expect a press conference from dr. fau kyi. what we can tell you she arrived last night, walked off the plane. seems to be in good spirits. getting the best care she could get. lastly, in terms of the mood around the hospital, jose. people here they're not necessarily that worried about ebola. they think this is a great bio containment unit. security certainly is tight. people going around here it's

business as usual. it's not a real fear as we've seen in other parts of the country. >> thank you so much for being with me. let's go to atlanta where nurse amber vincent is being treated. gabe gutierrez joins us live. what is the latest on our condition? >> good morning. her condition at emery university hospital is not updating this morning. we're hearing from her uncle, he released a statement and i'll read from it now. our family has been overwhelmed with support and love for amber and our extended family over the last 72 hours. we thank you for those prayers and well wishes. amber is stable, and we're continuing to work with her doctors as her treatment progresses. doctor chris braiden from the cdc told reporters yesterday she's not very well. you hear her uncle saying she's stable. this morning, as you mentioned, the cdc is scrambling to identify any commercial airline passengers that might have come

into contact with amber vincent. the cdc said they cannot rule out she may have had ebola symptoms as early as friday. that is earlier than they first thought. you may recall she flew on friday from dallas to ohio to visit her family and plan a wedding and flew back to dallas on monday. she did call the cdc on monday and self-reported that temperature of 99.5 degrees. but it did not meet the risk threshold of 100.4 degrees. her family is saying she followed all protocols. jose? >> gabe ambiguityi igutierrez, much. doctor, good morning. thank you very being with me. there's a lot of anxiety around the country surrounding ebola including your neck of the woods where nurse amber vincent recently visited. let me play something from peter alexander.

>> the ohio bridal shop that amber vincent saturday closed. a nearby elementary school shut down because a student's mom spent time with vincent even though vincent had no contact with the nurse's daughter. near san diego word a student's sister was hospitalized with flu-like symptoms. >> how do you walk the fine line between caution and panic here? >> it really is a fine line. first and foremost, i understand abundance of caution is what i've been hearing a lot of. this is scary. from a public health standpoint, from a medical standpoint we have to remain calm and follow appropriate guidelines. the number of people exposed to the nurse who would be in contact with bodily fluids while she was sick is very small. it's not zero, but it is it's very small. i understand there was a fine line between panic and hysteria. we've got to make sure we're

following the appropriate guidelines and trusting that the public health officials whether it's the cdc from the federal government or county colleagues here or in the mm community are following scientifically based guidelines. i understand why people are fearful. i think you have to look at other numbers. when mr. duncan came to dallas he took four aircraft to get there. he was in contact with dozens of people in dallas before he was hospitalized. none of those people have gotten ill. so the numbers we have to keep an eye and try to stay as calm as we can. >> true, but here is -- this is just me thinking out loud. mr. duncan, when he took the four flights had no fever. the fever came in later when he was already in dallas. and then this nurse who flew to cleveland already had a fever and apparently some possible symptoms. is there a difference there? >> there is a difference. and come back to my foundation. we have to follow the guidelines. you're exactly right. when you get a fever and the constitutional symptoms such as headache as you progress to

maybe vomiting or other symptoms that's when you're contagious. that's what the cdc has to figure out. when did she have symptoms? who was in close proximity. how do we track the people down to make sure she's safe? that's the public health question. >> that's important to keep in mind. when you see a sister of a brother of someone on the flight causing schools to close down. it seems as that's overreaction. doctor, talk about possible overreaction or not. calls are being -- you hear them louder and louder for travel ban. what are the pros and cons. what would that entail? >> that would be so hard to implement. right. i understand why and i'm not smart enough -- if that's the right trigger. there would be less patients potentially coming here from west africa that would expose other people. i heard the media say they fly

to brusselss that would come here. i think we have to use common sense public health issues. that's good screening, that's good isolation and containment of potential patients, and i think the president is right when he say we have to make sure we're helping west africa as much as the world can. not just an american response but an international response. we have to continue to take care of that outbreak. that's going to affect us here in america. >> yeah. and again we aren't expert on the flight issue. if there are no direct flights from west africa to united states of america, the calls may be for barring people from a specific country from coming into the country in the united states? i mean, it just it's just so much, you know, out there and so little focus on things that we can and should be doing specifically to avoid this issue. doctor, daniel varga testified on capitol hill yesterday saying they were, quote, deeply sorry for mistakes his hospital made.

put yourself in his shoes. what is it like for this hospital to basically be used as a wake-up call for the country. >> it is. i think a lot of hospitals across the country have, unfortunately, learned lessons from what went wrong. are we screening and identifying patients appropriately? are we isolating them if we think they're high risk? are we taking measures as much as we can to protect our hb workers. that's got to be first and foremost. are we getting patients the appropriate lev of care. i was glad to hear the appropriate level of care was transferring them to cdc, nih, and the facility of nebraska who have been preparing decades in the containment unit. it must be very difficult to be in their shoes. i'm emphatic. we as a health care system and university hospitals have learned lessons from this, unfortunately. >> i can't thank you enough for being with me. thank you so much. i want to take you live right now to the state department secretary of state john kerry delivering remarks.

>> now i know you don't need me to tell you what we're up against. i'm sure you've heard it from your own capitals every time you turn on the television or radio. you hear or see gripping scenes that tell us in real terms about the challenge. there's no way to describe the scenes from west africa other than just heart wrenching, gut wrenching, and images of a pregnant woman being turned away from a hospital and she's on the verge of collapse. or men and women dying on the streets. their children orphaned. and lot of hopeful nations working to plant the seeds of prosperity and open societies

now suddenly battling a brutal epidemic. it's not just the suffering we see or the risks that make this a different kind of crisis for us as diplomats. we live in a world of a lot of close calls. tough decisions on a daily basis difficult and contentious issues where you can have an honest disagreement about what the best course of action is or the facts or the result the of your decision may be. ebola is not one of them. it should not be contentious with respect to the facts or what is needed or how we proceed. we know the risks. we know the science. we know the medical certainties. we know what is required to beat back this epidemic.

right now we know it's a time for nothing less than brutal honesty with each other about what we need. >> secretary of state john kerry live in the state department talking about ebola and the reality. the real crude situation that is happening in west africa where bodies are literally being thrown into the streets after suffering from ebola. that is a reality going on in that part of the world that is very real. now we're waiting for a 10:30 news conference from the nih on the ebola crisis as we continue to separate fact from fiction. a live look at the pentagon. a briefing underway right now on the international military fight against isis. it's called operation inherit resolve. commander of u.s. central command general lloyd austin is speaking about the campaign that involves more than 20 countries. we're going to continue to monitor this and bring you any developments. take a look at this image. it was released by nasa.

it's hurricane gonzalo. a massive storm system bearing down on bermuda. we'll go there live in minutes. stay with us. a lot of breaking news this morning. we'll have it for you in minutes. i lost my sight in afghanistan, but it doesn't hold me back. i go through periods where it's hard to sleep at night, and stay awake during the day. non-24 is a circadian rhythm disorder that affects up to 70% of people who are totally blind. talk to your doctor about your symptoms and learn more by calling 844-844-2424. or visit my24info.com.

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there's breaking news coming out of the white house. chris jansing is there. >> for the first time last night president obama suggested he be willing to appoint an ebola czar. he said when he was ready to tell us a name he would. there's been no official announcement. cnbc is announcing it's ron clehane. he served as staff for al gore and vice president biden. but left a few years ago. there was talk he would replace

rahm emanuel but decided to go into the private sector which is where he has been for the last several years. he's a lawyer. he has somebody who has clerked for supreme court justices. in fact, his claim to hollywood fame is he was played by kevin spacey in the movie recount about the 2000 election. when pressed at the white house briefing josh earnest said there was no need right now for one person to oversee everything. there's been a lot of pressure on the white house especially among democrats running for election or re-election are concerned about what the ebola has done to their chances. we have seen republican put ebola in their campaign ads. feeling the pressure but recognizing that the folks who have been out there, especially the head the cdc and the nih who have big jobs to do they didn't have one person overseeing this

as a coordinator. i think it's important to point something that out that the united states has been without a surgeon general. and part of the question is do we need a surgeon general? that is a figure head position. that is has besomebody who servs a spokesman. who would be used as a person to get out administratiofacts. this ranges from the state department and department of defense to the national institute for health and centers for disease control and preventi prevention. so again, i came running out here to see. and it looks like, yes, we have conformation ron klain will be the ebola czar. >> that's what we call live breaking news on television. and, chris, thank you. i want to pick your brain a little bit on the situation with isis. as a matter of fact, the pentagon is right now

speaking -- i think we can go to the video right now live. the pentagon is still speaking about this operation to fight isis. there you see it. chris, i'm wondering there seems to be more and more talk about allies joining in. turkey is wishy washy as far as what they will or will not do. tell us about the isis. it's taking back burner to the celebration on ebo situation on ebola. it's a real war. >> it is. and the president continues to work on and have a series of meeting about. we saw yesterday chuck hagel was here at the white house. one of the few things he had on the formal schedule before they added the late day ebola meeting. was with the defense secretary. yes, that is a priority of the president. he's continuing to work with the phones, for example, both on the ebola crisis but also expanding the coalition.

there are a lot of similarities in these two things. the united states is leading but clearly they want other countries on board. they've had some success in both areas but not as much they would admit as they would like. on the isis front they continue to have meetings. there's going to be a situation room meeting today, as i understand. but they continue to develop strategy, continue to look for what kind of help they can get. you're right. turkey is a perfect example of some place they've been pushing hard but haven't gotten everything they wanted, jose. >> the great chris jansing. thank you so much for being with me and breaking important news on this broadcast. the president has decided who the ebola czar will be. chris, thank you so much. i show you the news conference that we're expecting in about nine minutes. there you see the live shot from the nih conference that we expect on the ebola crisis.

we've got a lot of other stories for you with this hour. bermuda is right now bracing for a major hurricane. this morning hurricane gonzalo is packing wind up to 145 miles per hour. coming up we'll have a live report from the island. an update on the pacific storm. also, a flash back friday on the west coast. the bay area is marking 25 years since the earthquake. 6.9 magnitude quake killed 63 people. it was most destructive earthquake since the 1906 quake and fire. travis i we'll be back with more. this one into right! the giants win! rt attack.

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hurricane gone is zzalo is category four storm. set to slam the island chain of bermuda around 6:00 tonight. winds weakened slightly from 150 to 130 miles per hour. it's a major hurricane. let's go to nbc meteorologist dillon dreyer. >> we're keeping a close eye on this storm. because i'm on the western side of the island right now. and just about 20 to 50 miles from where i'm standing that's where the center of the storm is expected to track. now it's running into a less favorable environment. that mean it is should weaken to a category three storm. that still produces winds up to 115 miles per hour. now this island is naturally defended against the hurricanes because of the sheer nature of the way it was developed. there are reeves that surround

the island that protect us from the really huge storm surge that you see in hurricanes in the gulf or down through florida. the water is not being snowpl snowplowed up on to land. in addition, the elevation is fairly high here in bermuda. we'll no doubt see coastal flooding, you don't have the flooding shutting down roads and interior areas because the water can't get that high. that being said, elevation kind of works against you. when you factor in the winds. we're looking for sustained winds for perhaps three to five hour period of around 115 miles per hour. those will make their way on shore. but you go u higher in elevation it's going to tack on a few miles per hour to the winds. on top of that we could see g t gusts 130 to 150 miles per hour. the structures here are built of solid cement. they can handle the winds. they have a deep foundation. the structures are the safest place to be as this storm hits. but we're looking at one of our

major concerns as the causeway to the airport. the lifeline for this island to get to the airport. it's the only way in and out. in 2003, hurricane fabian knocked out the entire bridge. this time around, this is the first category three hurricane that the island has seen since fabian. we'll see how it holds up. right now it's shut down. in the meantime everyone said they're going to hunker down, stay with their family, and pray as the storm hits the peak this afternoon. >> you be careful as well. thank you so much for being with me this morning. meantime, in the pacific governor neil declared a state of emergency in hawaii as tropical storm anna bears down. heavy rains expected with the possibility of flooding and mud slides. officials closed schools and evaluation shelters are being opened to help residents and tourists alike. we'll bring you the latest as the storms develop. coming up more on the hour's

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[ male announcer ] get the midas touch maintenance package including an oil change for only $24.99. and here's a deal, use your midas credit card and get a rebate of $25. oil. tires. brakes. everything. trust the midas touch. breaking news. we learned moments ago that president obama will select an ebola czar. nbc senior white house correspondent chris jansing confirming ron klain will be appointed as the ebola czar. let's go right to the nih presser happening as we speak. >> good morning, ladies and gentlemen. i'm dr. now cfoou chi. doctor h clifford lain, and dr. richard davy the director of the special clinical studies unit

here. i'm going to describe what just happened last night and i'm going have the doctor take a minute to tell you a bit about the building and we'll take questions and i'll direct the questions to each of the appropriate people. last night at 11: 54 nina pham, the 26-year-old nurse from dallas, texas, who the press has referred to as nurse number one was transferred and taken by ambulance in a special, secure environment here to the national institute of health to be admitted to our commerciadmit ed to special clinical studies unit. she's here with us, as i mentioned this morning. her condition is fair. she's stable, and she's resting comfortably. in this unit, we have a group of highly skilled, well trained staff. i particularly point out the

extraordinary capability of the training, experience, and dedication much our nurses and physicians who are taking care of her right now. i would be happy to answer any questions that you have but before we do, let me have john take one minute to describe this particular place, which some of you may not be familiar with and i'll field questions, if i can answer them. i will. if not i will have my colleagues do that. >> good morning. i'm the director of the clinical center. welcome to this building, which is the largest hospital in the world totally dedicated to clinical research. our patients call this place the house of hope. our nurses say there's no other hospital like it. and why is that? it's because of our mission to -- >> wait for a second. i don't think there's are you

okay? go. go. start over. >> if you could speak louder. >> okay. our patients like to call this place the house of hope, our nurses say there's no other hospital like it. why? because of our mission, our special mission to combine research, excellent patient care, and training. we feel very humbled and fortunate to be in a position to work on this international disaster ebola and to try to develop some new preventive and treatment strategies. thank you very much. >> i would be happy to take any

questions. yes? right. no. she's not deteriorating. i cannot tell you at this particular time why we have said fair. because the patient confidentiality. >> we don't know how long we'll get her here. we'll get her here until she's well and clear of virus. [ inaudible ] we don't know. we never make those kinds of predictions. this is a serious infection. she's getting the optimal care. it would not be appropriate to make a prediction when she'll get out. she'll get out when she's well enough and free of virus. she has the care of physicians and nurses and technicians with extensive training, experience, and knowledge of infectious diseases and infectious disease control. there are two things that are

happening. she's getting optimum intensive care, if needed, therapy, it's being done with the optimal protection of our health care workers. [ inaudible question ] >> reporter: talk about what we saw in the video she looks like -- >> i'm not sure what you saw. i was waiting for the patient in the lobby. what was it that you saw that you want me to describe? [ inaudible ] >> she also seemed very frail. >> okay. all right. so i didn't see the video. i can tell you she had a long trip. a trip that was quite tiring, as you can see. we assisted her. she was in a stretcher with a tent over it. it's the kind of thing that is optimum protection for the people in the ambulance and we had with her one of our intensive care physicians

dressed in the appropriate protective equipment, which brought her out. when she came out, she went from the plane and she had to walk off the plane because they wouldn't get her. but when we took her from the ambulance to the room we had her on a stretcher and we wheeled her in and put her in bed. >> the video from texas hospital released last night showed her in bed, you know, just in her environment. >> right. >> at this stage of her virus, how is she doing? >> it is impossible to say how she's doing compared to others. this is an individual patient that treats each individual patient as an individual patient. that's what we're interested. not how she's doing compared to others. we will take care of this patient. >> is she interacting with her care givers, the doctors, nurses? is she sitting up? >> she certainly is sittin ting. she was examined by dr. davy.

we saw her this morning. rick, would you like to just give whatever information you can give without violating any patient confidentiality? >> sure. as the doctor said she's resting comfortably, she's interactive with the staff. she's eating. she is able to interact freely and really think she's doing. >> talk more about the specifics on how you're caring for her. [ inaudible ] i'm not going to compare this hospital with other hospitals

but i can tell you what we have in this hospital we have intensivists we have infectious disease experts, on a daily basis notwithstanding ebola take care of the sickest possible patient patients we have individuals there and nurses f s who are hi trained, highly prepared, and highly experienced. that makes a difference. [ inaudible ] >> wait a second. >> can you talk about how the special needs you may have? >> there are two shifts right now. 12-hour shifts. rick, why don't you give the details of the number. i believe there's four and one five? >> right. currently we have five nurses assigned in a shift to her in the room with her at any time. when nursing necessary si for that.

on a given week we estimate an ill patient of this type may have up to 20 nurses assigned in the week's time. [ inaudible ] i cannot answer that. we have been prepared. we had a special unit study in 2011 for the purpose being able to accept patients who have anything that has to do with emerging infectious disease. we stood ready to accept the patient. when we were asked to accept the patient we accepted the patient. i cannot answer why. i believe it is pretty obvious the man was sick in dallas and he went to the emergency room and then to the clinic at texas presbyterian. you have to be careful. there are are more than one places that can take care of people with ebola. i wouldn't say this is a best

possible place. i can tell you it's a very good plac place. >> when you're dealing with a patient -- what is her understanding of her fate? [ inaudible ] >> i said she was in fair condition. which implies she does still have some symptoms. she is in good spirits. she's a highly intelligent aware person who knows exactly what is going on. she's a really terrific person. >> i understasince the crisis b >> i don't want to comment. let me make it clear on comparing dallas to here. she's here. we're responsible for her. that's our job. >> there are a lot of people watching this in dallas.

>> when you say recoverable, in the sense of recovering? absolutely. we fully intend to have this patient walk out of this hospital and we'll do everything we possibly can to make that happen. [ inaudible question ] >> first of all, let me talk about this particular. i'm going to restrict my remarks to the national institute of health special clinical studies unit. here this is a research hospital. the primary purpose we always put is the patient's welfare associated with that. we do whatever research to teach

us more to help other patients. altogether she's on a research protocol. our main concern is the health and recovery of nina. >> i can tell you again. i'm sorry. she came here at 11: 54. we haven't learned a lot about the virus yet. we're taking care of the patient. will she be getting any experimental drugs or anything like that? >> i think everything is on the table to be able to consider. this will always be done. we do it at all times with all of our patients whenever an experimental drug is given it's given with the express consent of the patient if it, in fact, turns out that way.

that's not a question i want to answer right now. again, i'm sorry but i want to tell you what we do here. we don't -- this is what we do. right. >> is it fair to say you're treating symptoms and not the ebola virus? >> there's no specific treatment for the ebola virus. we're giving her the best possible care on a symptomatic and systemic basis. [ inaudible question ] >> yes. the question is, does taking blood from dr. brantly and transfusing it into this patient could it make a difference? the answer is absolutely yes, it could make a difference. dr. brantly has within his plasma anti-bodies against the ebola virus. it is theoretically and possibly likely practically true that anti-body had a role. but we don't know that. and i think that's one of the

things i want to emphasize about this particular institution. not donneonly do we have the patient's welfare first, but we need to learn things for other patients. we're going to try as best as we can to learn something. the theoretical answer to your question, it certainly could have made a difference. [ inaudible question ] >> yeah. well, as you know, and as you have heard, there are a variety of symptoms that have to do with ebola. there's diarrhea, there's vomiting, there's fever, there's rash, and there's sometimes organ system dysfunction. whatever those we deal with we take care of it. there's no specific therapy that has been proven to be effective against ebola. that's why excellent medical care is critical. >> has she been able to give you

any indent how she contracted the virus? >> we're trying to work it out now. there will be more on that later. right now we want to make her comfortable and take care of her. then when we get further information, if appropriate, we'll make it known. >> the answer is now. we made ourselves available. when we were called upon we accepted the responsibility. when you get a patient in you evaluate them, doctor davy was primarily involved in that. there were things we saw that we wanted to make sure we were not missing anything. we're meticulous about that. you may start seeing a change in the status. so stay tuned. we'll give you updates as much as we possibly can.

no, again i want to tell you that she came in, she is stable. when we give a level it's based on what we see and we take care of it. it is highly likely that will change. but she came into the middle of the night and for us that was starting that point as soon as she got into the door. she's very fatigued. this virus wreaks havoc on you. you can come in and be getting better. you can have decrease in diarrhea but you're very tired. this virus knocks you out. we cannot predict this. it is a very unpredictable situation. we never make predictions until we have the patient walking out and talking to you and you can ask her that question.

we don't do that. [ inaudible ] right. i don't know exactly what is meant by a czar. we will certainly follow the lead of the president and follow the lead of secretary burwell. i take care of patients and do my job. other people do their job. [ inaudible ] there is no evidence whatsoever this virus is airborne transmitted. everything we know about this virus is direct contact with bodily fluids. you know them, we mentioned them many times. vomit, diarrhea, blood, other

body fluids. direct contact. if you look at the protection we have with. aers -- everything it would include that. we're not doing it for that reason we think it's respiratory. we don't. we do it for complete covering so there's no part of our doctors, nurses, or technician's body a this is exposed when they see the patient. we have a very strict system of getting dressed with someone watching you, going in, coming out, getting undressed with someone watching you. we have a limited amount of time when the person can be in the room so they don't get fatigued. that's what keeps our health care workers safe. two more questions.

>> you have to remember, as said, she's been under our care for less than 12 hours. we're taking a very conservative assessment at this point. as said, if the situation changes or if we have more time to evaluate her that situation may be upgraded. >> absolutely. [ inaudible ]

i'm going tell you something about ebola and i'm not going to specifically answer your question about who went where on what transportation. if a person is aasymptomatic tht doesn't have bodily fluids the person is not infected. our person is in isolation because she has a confirmed diagnosis of ebola. she's not only in isolation, you don't want to equate isolation of an ebola person and putting someone who is not got ebola that you're observing. those are two different concepts. she is where she is because she's sick and she needs care. [ inaudible ] this is a research hospital, and

i'm going to give -- everything is free. why don't you explain this. >> when i said there's no other hospital like it, we never bill the patient for anything. we will travel them here, if they need money, we'll house them or their family when they're here for free. we never send a bill. so this patient will never be charged for anything. the public pays $402 million a year to run this hospital for the generosity of the taxes. and we manage that budget. >> yes? [ inaudible ] >> okay. first of all, let's be correct. she's in isolation but she has

almost continual person to person contact. we have nurses going in, doctors going in, a screen where the nurses can speak to her. she has her ipad, her all the things she's got person-to-person. when we say isolation let me be clear. it's not an torture chamber. it's an individual being constantly cared for, cheered up. our nurses are spectacular. they do that all the time. >> has she expressed any fear about her condition? we know that -- >> she's a trooper. she's very brave. ting would be unrealistic that someone would not be worried if they had ebola. one more question. [ inaudible ] >> john? >> yeah. her mother and her sister are in

the area. >> i'm sorry. we have to go upstairs for another print meeting. thank you for being here. we appreciate it. thank you. a live press conference. you have been witnessing from the nih on the first and foremost condition of nina pham. she is in fair condition. the doctor described her as being stable with some symptoms but resting comfortably. mark potter, who is just back from dallas is with me right now. mark, let's first talk about the ebola czar now that the president has just named. why the need for that? >> i think there is a need for control and there's a need to reassure the public that the government is in control. for the two weeks i was in dallas there was a sense things were spiraling out of control. things we were told in the morning were corrected in the afternoon. we were told the protocols were followed then there was allegations they weren't. then an apology from the hospital. we were told that the health care workers who took care of mr. duncan were corralled.

they were being monitored. everything was being fine. then we learned one flew half way across the country and back and one took a cruise. one checked with the cdc before making the flight. it seemed that things were going out of control. it's being done to reassure the public we're on this and aware of this and bringing -- reigning this in. >> as you said you were at dallas. now the nurse pham's condition went from good to fair. from dallas good to maryland fair. >> a different set of doctors evaluating her after a long flight. she might have been tired. they might be changing that quickly. we're hopping that means back up wartd. it sounds like that's the first condition report that we got. but there is more to come. that may not necessarily mean an important downturn in her condition. we'll have to wait to see. >> do you think now this situation with the ebola czar it may have an impact on, for

example, the cdc? >> well, they'll have somebody else to answer to. there's been a concern. i'll have to tell you from the reporters in dallas. we would hear things and then they would be corrected. sometimes one organization was saying something different than the other. i think that, again, reigning this in. bringing this under control is what we're talking about here. and the public has been frightened by this. it's angry about this. i know, the white house has been hearing it. the president was going it go on political trips. he stopped that. and he's back talking about this. this has everybody's attention. finally. and i think this was the obvious next step. >> and now the hospital in dallas, essentially, is free from any patients with ebola. but we don't know what may happen in the next days. >> we don't. and the doctors have always said don't be surprised if we have another patient. the good news is the people near mr. duncan before he went in the hospital they have a couple of

days to go before they're free. >> it's getting close to the 21-day period. most appear before? >> long before. the news for them is quite good. it looks like the chances of any of them being infected is very low. now we're watching the health care workers who have now been asked to sign an agreement in dallas, by the way, they will voluntarily -- it's believed they will follow that. they will not do any traveling and go into places in public where there's a lot of people. now there are rules. there need to be rules. and they're being established. at the top of that, now is a new ebola czar. and i think this is all part of just trying to bring this in. it was going everywhere. and people were very, very nervous about who was in charge now we know. >> mark potter. thank you so much. good to see you. that's the latest for us. but this continues with breaking news.

tamron hall is with "newsnation." she starts off with a latest news. >> hey, jose. thank you so much. good morning, everyone. i'm tamron hall. in is "newsnation." we continue the breaking news we're following on msnbc. president obama just named an ebola czar. that man is ron klain. let's get to nbc chris jansing. the announcement came down a few minutes ago. we heard from the president late yesterday evening quick response some might say in finding ron klain. it seems perhaps the administration had him in mind last night even when the president was speaking. >> yeah. it's hard to believe they got it together in a matter of hours. it was less than 24 hours ago that the spokesman for the white house saying there was no plan for an ebola czar. here you have it. ron klain a well-known here in washington. long time democratic insider. served as chief of staff to two vice presidents, both al gore and most recently to joe biden.

there was talk he was gng to replace rahm emanuel then he went on to work for aol steve case in the investment. part is health care. that's not his main area of expertise. he's going to be somebody who is going to take all of these different differententies, look at who is involved in dadealing with the crisis. the centers for disease control and prevention and department of homeland security to department of defense. he's somebody who is going to oversee everything and presumably also who will serve as a singular spokesman. one of the things we've looked at is the number of people who have spoken for the administration. i think at last count it was seven or eight different people. they were looking for one clear focus. there's also a political component to this. it's increasing pressure from members of congress who are out in their districts that are seeing many campaign ads by the republicans who have been using